Italian cuisine: Cannoli

  Cannoli:
Cannoli is a Sicilian cream and pastry dessert. The singular of cannoli is cannolo,which means "little tube",cannoli stems from the Latin word "canna" which translates to reed.


Cannoli consists of tubed shaped fried pastry dough,which is then filled with a sweet creamy filling,the filling usually consists of ricotta cheese and chopped succade(candied citrus peel).

     Shell Ingredients:  
  4 cups sifted plain flour.
    2 tablespoons of sugar.
    one quarter teaspoon of salt.
    3 tablespoons of butter,softened.
    2 egg yolks.
    6 ounces of white wine.

  Filling ingredients:
  32 ounces of ricotta cheese.
    12 ounces of icing sugar.
    1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.

   Directions:

   Mix the sugar,plain flour and salt together in a bowl.Then add the softened butter (in pieces). add egg yolks and the stir.Add wine into the mixture while stirring at the same time. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest for half an hour. Roll dough on a floured surface till it is almost paper thin. cut circles out of the pastry using a pastry cutter and the form into an oval,then wrap the pastry around a cannoli tube(metal tube),fry one or two at a time at about 180 degrees celsius for about one minute or golden brown. drain off oil and leave the cannoli till it is cool,then slide it off the metal tube. drain the ricotta cheese if it's watery then mix it in with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. chill the mixture and then pipe it into the shells(also cooled). Cannoli can be garnished with crushed pistachios,chocolate shavings etc. keep it in the fridge till serving time.